Florida East Coast Industries plans Miami-Orlando passenger service by 2014

The new "All Aboard Florida" service, which would be privately owned and operated, would offer frequent, regularly scheduled daily trains geared to business travelers and tourists. The Miami-Orlando trip by rail would take three hours, about the same time it takes by car via Florida's Turnpike.

There would be four stops: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando, each with connections to airports, seaports and existing rail systems such as Tri-Rail and Metrorail. The trains would run on existing FEC tracks that stretch along the east coast from Miami to Cocoa. Forty miles of new track would link Cocoa to Orlando.

"It's a huge plus for our business," said Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. "It opens doors for us to market to new visitors. That is the key to our success."

But there are a lot of unanswered questions, such as how the company will raise the $1 billion it says will be necessary for the project, how many people would ride the train, how much it will cost to ride, where specific stations would be located and exactly how frequently the trains will run.

Some of those answers could become clearer in a few months once a ridership and feasibility study is completed.

Florida East Coast Industries is a Coral Gables-based real estate and transportation company. Its affiliate, Florida East Coast Railway, operates freight trains on the FEC tracks.

Company officials said passenger service will not affect freight service although the railroad has a single track in many locations. Today, FEC moves about 14 freight trains a day, carrying goods arriving or departing through the area's seaports.

"Florida's taxpayers will have no ongoing construction or operating risks" for the new system, which "will include business¿ and coach¿class service with advance purchase reserved seating, gourmet meals, Wi¿Fi, and the ability to work productively throughout the entire trip," according to the company.

The Miami-to-Orlando route mirrors what would have been the second leg of the faster high speed train that Gov. Rick Scott killed last year, mainly due to concern about taxpayers being stuck with future costs and that too few people would ride it.

The Miami-Orlando route was always considered to have the most profit potential because it could ferry cruise line passengers from Orlando International Airport to Port Canaveral, as well as provide passage for tourists from South Florida to Disney World.

In a news release announcing its plans, FEC officials said the project would create 6,000 jobs to build the system and more than 1,000 jobs to operate and maintain it.

If successful, the FEC says they would add service to Tampa and Jacksonville.

U.S. Rep.Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, applauded the FEC proposal as providing an alternative form of transportation at a time of $4-a-gallon gas prices. "This is truly a 'shovel ready' project," he said.

Top officials with the Florida Department of Transportation are reviewing the proposal.

The state currently is spending about $118 million to put Amtrak service on FEC tracks between West Palm Beach and Jacksonville by 2015.

Currently, Amtrak runs from Miami to Jacksonville on CSX tracks that veer northwest from West Palm Beach to Orlando, then northeast to Jacksonville.

A direct route from West Palm Beach to Jacksonville would shorten that trip from 10 hours to six.

The FEC last carried passengers in 1968.

In the 1980s, the state approached the FEC about using its tracks when Tri-Rail was created to offset congestion while I-95 was widened. But the FEC refused to allow passenger trains because it wanted freight to be its top priority.

So the state instead bought a 72-mile stretch of the CSX tracks, most of which run west of I-95.

Two decades later, the FEC, under new ownership, said it was willing to negotiate use of its tracks for passenger service.

It isn't clear what, if any, effect Thursday's announcement will have on a DOT study to put commuter trains on the FEC between Jupiter and Miami.

Some estimates have put the cost at more than $2 billion. Tri-Rail officials, meanwhile, have said they could jumpstart service faster and cheaper on the FEC between Fort Lauderdale and Miami in three years by splitting its existing trains between the two rail lines.